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Amanita ceciliae

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Amanita ceciliae
A mature specimen from Italy.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Fungi
Subkingdom:
Dikarya
Phylum:
Basidiomycota
Subphylum:
Agaricomycotina
Class:
Agaricomycetes
Subclass:
Agaricomycetidae
Order:
Agaricales
Family:
Amanitaceae
Genus:
Amanita
Species:
A. ceciliae
Binomial name
Amanita ceciliae
(Berk. & Broome) Bas (1984)
Synonyms[1]
  • Agaricus ceciliae Berk. & Broome (1854)
  • Amanita inaurata Secr.
  • Amanita strangulata (Fr.) Quel.
Amanita ceciliae
View the Mycomorphbox template that generates the following list
Gills on hymenium
Cap is convex
Hymenium is free
Stipe has a volva
Spore print is white
Ecology is mycorrhizal
Edibility is inedible

Amanita ceciliae, in English commonly called snakeskin grisette, Cecilia's ringless amanita and strangulated amanita, is a basidiomycete fungus in the genus Amanita, section Vaginatae. It is an uncommon fungus found in woods throughout Europe and North America. It is characterised by bearing a large, inedible fruiting body with a brown cap, ringless stipe and grey universal veil.

Description

A collection of Amanita ceciliae showing typical coloration, from Piacenza's mountains
Cap
The cap is 5–12 cm across, convex, expanding to planoconvex or flat with an upturned, deeply lined margin and a low umbo. It is grey-brown to brown-black in colour, darker in the centre, and paler towards the margin. Its surface feels smooth, and is slightly sticky when moist. The cap surface is characterised by having loose, fleecy, charcoal-grey patches of volval remnants scattered across it. The patches are easily removed. The margin is strongly striated.[2] The cap colour is often variable, and pale forms are known to exist: Amanita inaurata f. decolora (Parrot) and Amanita ceciliae var. pallida (Ricek). Amanita inaurata var. royeri (Maire) is a cinder black-capped variation.[3]
Gills
Gills are free, close, and white in colour.
Stem/Stipe
Stem is 7–18 cm long, up to 2 cm thick and 50–160 × 7–15 mm, lightly stuffed and then hollow, tapering slightly toward the top; dingy white with flattened greyish fleecy hairs, often in a zig-zag pattern. It does not bear a ring and has fragile, cottony, brownish or charcoal-coloured oblique girdles of volval remnants around the stem base and lower stem. The volva is whitish to greyish volva, powdery and delicate.[4]
Spores and microscopic features
Spores are white, spherical and non-amyloid. They measure 10.2–11.7 µm.[5] A few "giant" spores are commonly found in a mount of gill tissue. Clamps are not found at bases of basidia.[6]
Flesh
White and unchanging when sliced.
Odour
Not distinctive.
Chemical test
The cap surface reaction with potassium hydroxide (KOH) is negative.[4] Alkalis such as potassium hydroxide are used in the identification of many mushrooms, including boletes, polypores, and gilled mushrooms.

Distribution and habitat

An immature specimen from the southern Appalachian mountains

In Europe, Amanita ceciliae is widely distributed from east to west and north to south, but is infrequently encountered.[7] It often inhabits deciduous forests with hornbeam (Carpinus), oak (Quercus), beech (Fagus) and birch (Betula), but it can also rarely occur with conifers: pine (Pinus), fir (Abies), spruce (Picea) and cedar (Cedrus). It has a preference for neutral to calcareous soils.[3]

In North America, it is found mainly in areas east of the Mississippi River, but similar mushrooms also occur in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and Texas. They prefer mycorrhizal habitats including hardwoods and conifers. They grow alone, scattered, or gregariously during summer and fall. It is primarily eastern in distribution but also reported in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and Texas (with an apparent association with pecan trees).

There is speculation that North American collections could possibly be an undescribed species differing from the European A. ceciliae.[4]

Edibility

Amanita ceciliae is not known to be edible and is best avoided.[5]

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Amanita ceciliae.
  1. ^ "Synonymy: Amanita ceciliae". Species Fungorum. CAB International. Retrieved 2011-10-01.
  2. ^ "Snakeskin grisette". Wild About Britain. Retrieved 2011-10-01.
  3. ^ a b Fraiture A. (1993). Les Amanitopsis d'Europe (in French). Jardin Botanique Nationale de Belgique. pp. 41–4. ISBN 90-72619-09-9. ISSN 0775-9592.
  4. ^ a b c "Amanita ceciliae. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site". Kuo, M. (2006, March). Retrieved 2011-10-01.
  5. ^ a b "Amanita ceciliae at Rogers Mushrooms". Rogers Plants Ltd. Retrieved 2011-10-01.
  6. ^ "Amanita ceciliae (Berk. & Broome) Bas". R. E. Tulloss. Retrieved 2011-10-01.
  7. ^ Régis Courtecuisse and Bernard Duhem (1995). Mushrooms & Toadstools of Britain and Europe. Harper Collins. pp. 272–73. ISBN 0 00 220025 2.
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